DRUGS FOOTBALL TEAM BLOWS FINAL WHISTLE

CALTON Athletic, the football team of former drug addicts which advised the
makers of Trainspotting and was immortalised in a television drama starring
Robbie Coltrane and Lenny Henry, is to be disbanded.

David Bryce, director of Calton Athletic recovery group, said its drugs
prevention and schools work would continue but its Glasgow drop-in centre
would close with the loss of six full-time workers, including Bryce and his
deputy, David Main. Both plan to continue as volunteers.

All work on recovering addicts will stop, including the day programme which
last year saw more than 100 "graduates" from the rehabilitation programme.
Prison outreach work will also be discontinued as Calton concentrates
solely on prevention and schools.

Greater Glasgow health board provides #250,000 for Calton, but Bryce, with
the backing of his staff, decided last week to withdraw from funding after
criticising the board and the council's social work department.

Bryce recently claimed that Calton had fared better under a Conservative
government and criticised Labour's lack of support for abstinence-based
projects.

The group's recently opened drugs awareness academy will continue. Scotland
Against Drugs, the cross-party campaign, has contributed #50,000 to the
academy which will train drug workers and devise prevention schemes.
Additional funds have come from Figment Films, Polygram Video and the
Celebrities Guild of Great Britain because of the group's contribution to
Trainspotting.

Bryce has recently suffered ill-health and says he owes it to his family to
reduce the pressure. "It was extremely difficult making these choices but I
have a responsibility to the other group workers and the schools action
team and this restructuring is for the good of the club," he said.

Calton Athletic began 12 years ago as a football team for recovering
addicts, as depicted in the television drama Alive and Kicking starring
Coltrane and Henry. The group acted as advisers to the makers of
Trainspotting and recently received a cheque for #20,000 from video sales
of the film.

Calton at present works with 1,000 addicts in central Scotland, through the
drop-in centre, prison outreach work, and work and education programmes
with addicts' families. Bryce said he would "honour present commitments"
before restructuring in April.

He said Calton hoped to expand its influence south of the border with
several projects based on its work in Glasgow. Next month advisers would
visit London to meet the Stone Foundation, a charity concerned with drug
and alcohol addiction.

Thaddeus Birschard, clerk to the Stone trustees, said: "The trustees were
immensely impressed and saw Calton as real people doing real work."

Bryce said it would be easier to expand in London. "We get more support
there than we do in Scotland. We will not stand for anything less than full
co-operation now," he said.

In May, Calton will visit the Tower Hamlets Drug Challenge Fund in London
and work with third division Leyton Orient FC.

Dr Tim Crabbe, of Goldsmiths University, is organising a Government-backed
conference that will hear the experiences of Calton and its work with sport
and drugs.

"There's a lot of interest in their ability to use sport as a way to get a
message across and their success is reflected in the number of people who
come to them," he said.

Bryce was optimistic about the future in London. "I feel this is the
direction we must head in because of the rejection and mistrust we put up
with here," he said.

Dr Laurence Gruer, consultant in health and public medicine for Greater
Glasgow health board, said he was optimistic that an agreement could be
reached but agreed that Calton might have found its working relationship
restrictive.

David Macauley, campaign director of Scotland Against Drugs, described the
decision as "a dreadful loss to the city of Glasgow" and said he was
extremely distressed by the news.